Costner Works Through The Pain

Kevin Costner was so determined to complete his western epic Open Range under budget and on time, he worked through a crippling case of appendicitis.

The movie star, who directs and stars in the film, collapsed during the second week of shooting, but refused to stay in hospital.

Instead he worked solidly for 10 weeks while his burst appendix were slowly poisoning him.

He says, "We didn't have a lot of money - we were just over $20 million (GBP12.5 million) to make the movie and the second week I couldn't make it. I just laid down in the ground and went to the emergency hospital.

"I had been as sick as I had ever been. I guess it was kind of life-threatening. I woke up and those IVs were hanging from the vent in my apartment. I had six IVs put in me.

"They diagnosed me wrong. They thought that I had dehydrated and there was a thought about shutting down for three weeks. I said, 'Bulls***, we're not shutting down! We're going to work on Tuesday.'

"I went back to work on Tuesday and we worked for 10 more weeks and it turns out it was my appendix and it had been poisoning me."